The Last Dying Ember
by Speares
Summary: A raging fire of war was thought be extinguished long ago but what happens if the embers of it mix with the dark forest? The destruction may be too great for the forest to sustain. T because I don't know how I'll do the gore, Takes place after Nigh Whispers
1. Prologue

Prologue

The she-cat's heart beaded loudly, echoing off the trees and threatening to leap out of her chest. Her pursuers chased after her through the still forest. It seemed they were very intent on their 'prey' as it ran in terror through all the sharp, stabbing brambles and over the misplaced tree roots. The cats were cruel, they would get close just to terrify her and then draw back to their shadowy ranks. The chase was silent and deadly, the she-cat's hunters were sure to get her but they wanted a bit of dark fun.

_Please Starclan, let me live!_ She wailed in her head. However their starry ancestors did not answer her silent prayer because at that moment one of her front paws gave away under her. Fiery jets of pain shot through her as she got up and continued to run. Finally she came to the gorge and the she-cat knew it was over.

"How does it feel to be a traitor?" What seemed to be the lead cat because of his confident stance spoke. He had broad shoulders and was slightly a size under a badger. His black fur with white streaks complimented his mammoth of a cat size. His large claws glinted in the moonlight as he stepped forward. Raising one paw he cuffed the she-cat across her ears several times and the other cats joined in until a huge, white cat with jet-black paws hollered at them.

"Kill her, quickly so we can get back to the battle, stop fooling around Badgerstripe!" He growled.

"I want justice! She killed my mother!" Badgerstripe let out a low growl and striked the limp she-cat extra hard before bolting out of the clearing, the others following like shadows towards the yowling in the distance.

Gingerly, the she-cat opens one glowing blue eye and struggles to lift her head. She knows it's her end but only one thought races through her broken mind.

_Why Starclan? I didn't have a choice, why?_

With her eye still open she struggles to take in a breath, and with a last shudder shook her fragile body it closed and she moved no more.

….

"I want you to take on the fiery one as an apprentice; don't fail me anymore than you have." A dark tabby tom with amber eyes growled at the long-legged, beautiful she-cat.

"I won't she'll be tough but we'll convince her, don't worry, Tigerstar." She said with a voice like a smooth, golden stream.

"That's right you will." Tigerstar stern, rocky voice spoke. The she-cat walked to the black, churning river and struck it with a dainty but powerful paw, causing the area to turn to crystal water.

"Starclan still has some faith in me..." she muttered and groomed her silver coat in neat, pink strokes. Tigerstar watched her intently with glowing amber eyes before he turned around.

"Well they shouldn't," he walked closer, breathing down her neck now. "Because you are going to stay on our side, right? They did banish you here for simply expressing your side and defending yourself…"

The she-cat flicked her tail irritably and looked at her with a glint in her eye.

"I'm not doing this for you," she spat. "I'm doing it because they betrayed me and now they must pay for their mistake." Her silver paw left they water as she stormed away, star dust trailing in her path.


	2. Reckless Actions

**This is kind of a one-shot because I wanted to try a Warriors fanfic so Plz lemme know if thou likeds it. (Grammar fail)**

The bright light shifted its way through the cracks of the rocks around the apprentice's den, and then finding its path to Emberpaw's eyes. She opened them up and shook her fur, last night it had rained and gotten her fur damp. The air outside was cool and a slight fog hung around the camp, not heavy but just making vision cloudy and erasing a few scents. Emberpaw looked around to see Dovepaw and Ivypaw curled together, not yet awake. For a moment she considered waking them up but decided against it, they needed their sleep; plus they looked uneasy.

Fortunately Emberpaw didn't need to make a decision because at that moment Ivypaw stirred and looked up at her.

"Hi, um Emberpaw, right?" Ivypaw said between a yawn.

"You don't know my name?" Emberpaw gave her a weird look and flicked her tail irritably.

"I do, I just forget because I'm so-" she was cut off by a loud yawn. "-Tired…"

The silver she-cat grudgingly got up and Emberpaw glared at her.

"What have you been doing?" Emberpaw inquired.

"Nothing, I've been here the whole night long."

Dismissing her den mate she padded out of the apprentices den and out into the clearing, immediately blown by icy wind. Lucky for Thunderclan it seemed the rain melted the frost, possibly saving some plants for Jayfeather.

Every time she passed by the medicine cat's den he was always mumbling about 'shortage' and how it was an 'inconvenience'. If it wasn't because Jayfeather not having herbs could mean warrior deaths, then he would be almost comical. She decided that if she wasn't on any patrols she would find some herbs for him.

"Emberpaw! You up for border patrol?" Brambleclaw called from the cats clustered around him.

"Sure, I'm ready to go when the others are." Emberpaw walked over to stand by her mentor, Graystripe.

The large long-haired grey tom spoke behind Brambleclaw, joining the conversation.

"Can I lead it? I want to assess Emberpaw's tracking skills." He spoke.

"That would be fine, Graystripe, the others are ready at the thorn tunnel." Brambleclaw flicked his tail in the direction of the waiting patrol and the two cats left the deputy and walked over, meowing in greeting as they approached.

"Who's leading the border patrol, Birchfall?" Graystripe asked the brown warrior.

"I think I should so that you could keep your senses on Emberpaw." Birchfall leads the five cats out of the thorn tunnel and through the forest, hardly flinching as the cold breezes tore at their fur and threatened to knock them off balance. Emberpaw didn't flinch; in her mind she made her own little fire to keep her warm, exactly matching the russet tone of her ginger pelt.

That was why the clan had named her Emberpaw, because as she lay scared and alone lying in the snow she looked like the dying ember of a once blazing fire. Through her hard training she had earned her respect and every scrap of fresh-kill she had ever consumed.

As they trotted through the cold forest each cat had time to think. Some thought about their duties, some about their past, and some worried about where the kit's next meal would come from. However Emberpaw kept thinking of her little fire.

Finally when they reached the Shadowclan border they were greeted with mad stares from an enemy patrol.

"Greetings, Oakfur, Rowanclaw, Ferretpaw, and Toadfur; you look….well enough." Graystripe dipped his head in respect but the ginger tom, Rowanclaw, merely grunted in recognition. Emberpaw wrinkled her nose in disgust as the smell of the two-leg path reached her nose. Graystripe glared at her with his yellow eyes and she pawed the ground.

"Sorry, the twoleg path smells bad." She says in excuse. "Though Shadowclan doesn't smell any better…"the she-cat muttered under her breath, earning her a cuff over an ear by Birchfall, though he purred in amusement.

"We wish you well." Rowanclaw led his patrol off as the Thunderclan cats checked to make sure no one had crossed the border, though they doubted it.

"Why don't you take Emberpaw to train with Ivypaw and Dovepaw?" Birchfall said. The apprentice bounced in excitement until she heard the names Ivypaw and Dovepaw.

"Aw, not with them!" Emberpaw whined. The cream-colored tom beside her cocked his head in confusion, but then he let out a _mrrow_ of amusement.

"Don't wanna get your tail kicked?" he teased.

"Oh you wanna go right now, Berrynose?" she flattened her ears and hissed at the tom, fluffing her already fluffy tail up.

"Or can I train her?" Berrynose was amused.

"Actually that would be great; she needs to work on her temper." Graystripe waves them off and then the rest of the patrol heads off, leaving the two cats to their own devices.

"Race you to the training hollow!" Berrynose shouted as he and Emberpaw ran legs a blur.

When they got to the sandy hollow Emberpaw had several burrs in her fur but didn't care to get them out.

"Just give me what you got, try and sneak up and attack me." He said.

Emberpaw retreated into the trees and began talking to him as she changed her tone of voice several times to make her appear farther away. She told him about how close she was, about how she was about to strike. Berrynose tried to tell her how she was supposed to be silent when Emberpaw burst out of the bushes and tackled him.

"I still don't know how you do that with your voice." He says, spitting out dust.

"I've just always been able to do things with my voice." Emberpaw said cheerfully.

Berrynose flicked his tail irritably; her friend liked to know everything there was to know about war and was upset he couldn't do that. So naturally, he was going to try something he was good at too, but before he could tell her what to do Lionblaze and Dovepaw emerged out of the bushes. Dovepaw let out a squeal when she saw Emberpaw.

"I didn't see you there, it's like you have no scent!" she exclaimed, panting from her scare.

"We are _all_ full of surprises, aren't we?" Emberpaw said mischievously, earning her a look from Lionblaze. The golden warrior studied her for a moment before turning to Berrynose, though not dismissing what he treated like a 'threat'. _That's okay, She_ thought. _I have never been trustworthy._

"How about you two try and launch a surprise attack on us, pretend we're an enemy patrol heading through the territory." Lionblaze suggested. The two apprentices nodded their heads as the two toms disappeared into the undergrowth. Dovepaw turned to Emberpaw.

"Okay, we're going to-" Emberpaw cut her off by lightly cuffing her across the head.

"Who said you were in charge?" she hissed and began to creep through the forest, abnormally silent; even for a cat. Dovepaw trailed wearily behind and Emberpaw could almost feel the anger radiating off of her grey fur. Usually she was treated like a senior warrior and all that, Emberpaw hated it because no one payed attention to her except a few close cats. She always treated Dovepaw inferior so that the she-cat knew her place. Emberpaw wouldn't take Dovepaw's fox-dung.

"Do you know where they are?' Dovepaw hissed angrily.

"Yeah, let's climb this tree and drop down on them!" Emberpaw whispered back.

"You go I don't wanna drop; I'll get them after you come in." Dovepaw backed into the bushes and Emberpaw turned to the tree, gathering her haunches to leap. She jumped and hooked her claws onto the rough bark, struggling to pull herself up, though she was very light. Emberpaw hauled herself onto a low branch and then began to nimbly jump from tree limb to tree limb until she was high enough to see the warriors but low enough to drop.

Suddenly there was a loud screech and Emberpaw look just in time to duck as yellow talons swooped down at her. They missed but dove back down for more, missing again. Emberpaw gathered herself up to see a giant eagle circling above her and gasped; she had never seen anything like it here! She decided on a reckless move so that she could feed her clan and leaped onto its back, beginning to drag it out of the sky and down to the ground. It screamed at awful pitches and struggled against her wait but didn't go down; Emberpaw began to worry.

Down below Berrynose and Dovepaw were shouting to her and she turned to see Lionblaze perched on a tree branch, ready to help. The eagle began to fly until it was farther from the tree where Lionblaze was and she now held on for dear life; it was a strong bird. The wind from its beating wings threatened to knock her off as she clung to its body; keeping her claws dug in tightly. It protested and bucked in an effort to get off but it only drained its energy and finally it started to go down. Emberpaw tried to urgently unhook her claws out of the eagle's skin so she could jump but she was latched on. She hit the ground with a sickening BAM onto sticky marsh ground.

Emberpaw's head pounded in her skull and her vision spun around in a blur, but she could tell where she was. She was in Riverclan territory near the Shadowclan border. With a valuable piece of fresh-kill. In the middle of leaf-care when everyone was starving. Unable to defend herself.

Immediately she hauled herself up but was punished with a stab of pain from her head all the way down to her paws. Emberpaw grunted her teeth and began to lug her body and the eagle towards the border. It felt like claws were tearing from her skull and then ripping the rest of her body, right after the first step.

"Hey! You!" a voice of two she-cats came from a distance and Emberpaw braced herself for battle.

"Don't touch it!" she growled at a grey tabby and a mottled gold cat.

"Why would we eat that?" the grey tabby hissed.

"What's your name?" the golden she-cat asked.

Emberpaw was too dazed and sick to reply, she only hugged protectively to her fresh-kill.

"She smells of Thunderclan…" the grey tabby who seemed to be the follower said.

"Quick, Willowshine, go and run to Thunderclan! Run as fast as you can, ignore all of Shadowclan!" The golden she-cat mewed urgently.

"No, she's on her own; Mosspelt is having her kits and things are going wrong, come on Mothwing!" Willowshine wailed, dragging her mentor. The two cats left, not wanting to waste their precious herbs on an enemy apprentice, especially such an un-cooperating one. They left in a trail of dusk and immediately Emberpaw struggled to her feet and began to pull herself, and still the eagle, across the border and into the dangerous marshlands of Shadowclan.


End file.
